No Win 10 update yet? Could be the computer. It’s been a few months since the release of Windows 10, the questions keep coming.

Question: There has been a lot of talk about Windows 10 over the past 3 months since it’s release. I have enjoyed your articles.

The situation is that I have 3 computers running Win 8.1 and even though I have reserved Win 10 on all of them to date none of them had come with the installation prompt! I did find a workaround about a week ago on the net that worked for my Surface Pro 3 and was able to upgrade that one. I tried the same workaround (deleting everything in software distribution folder/running wuauclt.exe from cmd prompt) on my Lenovo Flex 2 laptop but it was a no go. I also have an HP 300-030 but have not tried to force an upgrade on that one.

We are now as I mentioned 3 months down the road on this Win 10 release. Shouldn’t the Flex 2 & HP come up with the installation prompt by now? Searching the web is not bring up much help in this area. Is it driver problems/software issues/etc.? Was wondering what your thoughts were on why it’s taking so long? Would it be risky to download the ISO and try an upgrade from that?

Answer: There are a couple of reasons you might not have yet seen the upgrade prompt. You might simply not have gotten it yet! Although that’s admittedly pretty unlikely at this date. Rather than running wuauclt.exe, you should run wuauclt.exe / updatenow (don’t forget that space before the /). It’s also simply possible that you have a computer that can’t run Windows 10. Here are the specifications:

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster.

• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit) (this is actually a lie - 4G is the minimum for a good experience).

If you’re missing any of these, you can’t upgrade to 10. If you have all of these and are still impatient, you can always download the Windows 10 ISO and burn your own DVD (www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO). PLEASE NOTE: You really should write down your Windows license key before you install 10! It should pick it up automatically, but it is, after all, Microsoft!

Q: I recently installed Windows 10 on my Toshiba Satellite L655. Immediately after the installation my battery icon, at the bottom of the screen, now continually says “no battery detected.” Since I never can tell how much battery power I have left, my laptop’s portability is useless. How can I get the battery icon to show how much power is still left, like it used to do?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

A: I’ve seen this a couple of times on Windows 10 (more often on Windows 8), but this is what’s worked:

Try a proper system reset. Power off the laptop, unplug the power cord from the unit, remove the battery, and press and hold down the power button for 30 seconds. Replace the battery and power cord and power on. When you see the Toshiba logo, press the ‘F2’ key to enter the BIOS Setup. In Setup press ‘F9’ to load setup defaults, press ‘F10’ to save and exit, and then to boot into Windows.

I realize that’s a lot of steps, and I also realize there’s a lot of tricky timing involved in that. But that’s what has worked for me in the past.

Q: Your column on Nov. 5, responding to a question of how to get rid of Microsoft’s Windows 10 pop-ups, says that in coming weeks Microsoft will be more aggressive in pushing Windows 10 onto reluctant Windows users.

You seemed to be saying that they would eventually start downloading Windows 10, without the user’s consent, to computers that use an automatic update setting. I am running Windows 7 Home Premium. I don’t ever plan to update my computer to Windows 10, because I hate new software designs. For an example of how bad they can be, look at the “new and improved” Mapquest. I took one look at it and opted to restore the earlier version of Mapquest.

Will there ever be any danger of Microsoft uploading Windows 10 to my computer without my consent and forcing me to use it? My computer is now set to automatically accept Windows updates.

A: Back on Sept. 11, Microsoft confirmed it has been pre-loading the Windows 10 installation bits onto devices whose owners have not “reserved” a copy or expressed interest in the new OS. The move upset some users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, who complained that the unsolicited downloads caused them to exceed their Internet providers’ data caps or seized storage space without their consent.

Note that this doesn’t actually install Windows 10. After the Windows 10 upgrade was downloaded to the device, the user was notified through the app that it was ready to install. You’d have to turn off updates to stop this from happening. No one knows if Microsoft will eventually just install 10 anyway.